More With Mary Mary! (GT Connext)

Gospel Today’s March/April 2012 issue highlights the extraordinary sister duo Mary Mary. In case you’ve been living under a rock, you know that they’re virtually unstoppable right now– radio airplay, albums sales, award after award, and now… a new reality TV series on WE tv!

Here, read parts of our exclusive interview that we couldn’t cram into the magazine!

[table id=6 /]

***

GT: You\’ve been filming the show for months nowâ€”what has been the most exciting or fun part of this process?

Tina: For me, it\’s been to actually see the footage. When we are in middle of taping our reality, it just feels like life is happening. We\’ve been committed to making sure that what people see on TV is real to our existence. So, when I see footage of it, or when we shoot promo commercials, it sets in. I think â€œwowâ€¦ I actually have my own reality show.â€ But other than that, it just feels like work! (laughs)

Erica: (laughs) It\’s work!

Tina: It feels the same as what we do on tour, at home, with our husbands, in the studio. All of that just feels like real life.

GT: You all have a family full of charactersâ€” your kids are hilarious, your sisters are hilarious, your husbands are hilarious. Who would you say is the most unexpected â€œstarâ€ of this whole show?

Tina: I don\’t want to give too much away, but GooGooâ€”she\’s our stylist and our little sisterâ€”she\’s got all the personality in the world. Our kids are characters. Our husbands are characters, too, though they\’re not as animated as their wives. We don\’t want no silly husbands!

Erica: But they have BIG personalities.

Tina: Absolutely. They have big personalities and I think they are â€œa man\’s man.â€ They\’re characters that a dude can gravitate to, respect, admire and pull something from.

GT: How are you looking to incorporate your faith in your upcoming reality series?

Erica: It\’s really hard to show a non-believer how to be a Christian if we never give a practical application of how that plays out in life once you leave church, leave the bible study, or leave the prayer service. You get to see that in our showâ€”you see the practical application of everyday living.

GT: How is Mary Mary planning to avoid some of the drama that so many reality shows give us?

Tina: We are very content and comfortable in the skin we\’re in, we\’re very confident in who we areâ€”with or without the show. I feel like our identity is already established, so our aim for having a reality show might be different from others.

We would forfeit the show, and countless other things, if it meant breaking up our happy home, our family (not just me and Erica, but the family members who the masses don\’t really know), offending our parents, or offending our faith. That is something that we would never be willing to compromise.